Returning the Favor and other Slices of Life

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Yeah, I know, there's been precious little of that on this little blog, but I have actually been playing some poker. Here's a few quick hits and observations that I've come to lately.

1) If you master Stud 8, you can crush HORSE tourneys and ring games. Obviously Stud 8 is the most complicated of the 5 games in the rotation, with the exposed and folded board cards to remember, not to mention the cards that you are looking for versus the odds to get them, not to mention figuring out if your opponent is going low with their exposed rags, or has a straight and is gonna scoop your ass. Hold Em is certainly the simplest of the five games, and Omaha, while far more complicated than Hold Em, only constitutes 20% of the rotation, while 60% of the game is stud-based. So if you focus on and hone your Stud 8 skills, that will transfer over into Stud Hi and Razz, and you (I) should be able to crush the HORSE games online.

Nothing new to that statement, just a distillation of something that's been rolling around in my head for a little while.

2) I played some horrible poker on Sunday night and still managed to come out ahead at the end of the night, mostly due to some abominable suckouts I delivered. In one, I limped in the cutoff with 2s6s (yes, I know, but I told you I was playing atrociously). Big Nick raised, and several people called. Flop brought a 4-5-x, with one spade, so I had no real draw, just a gutshot and a backdoor flush draw. I decided to make a move on Nick, so when he reached for chips, I looked over and said "don't get frisky." He counted out a bet of $17.50, everybody folded, and I min-raised to $35. He looked over, I said "I told you not to get frisky," and he called. He checked the turn, which was a second spade, and I checked behind. The river of course brought my 3, and when he checked I tossed $15 in the pot. He called, I showed the gutshot, and stepped on his soul a little bit. He said after the hand "I let you get there," and I responded with "If you bet the turn, I go all-in." He looked a little confused. It was nothing more than me taking advantage of the fact that he was running bad and doesn't understand yet how to play cash games, but it was a fun kind of evil nonetheless.

3) The high hand jackpot in my home game got hit twice in one night, and now I think I'm changing how to qualify for the rolling jackpot. Here's what we do now - every pot that sees a flop, I take $.50. We award a nightly high hand jackpot for the best hand by midnight (or 11PM if we start early), and that gets half of whatever is collected on the night. The other half goes into the rolling jackpot, which is awarded to quads or better. Right now there's nothing that says that both cards have to play to win the bigger jackpot, which led to me and Nick the Smaller both catching jackpot hands in the same night. He made quads with one 3 in hid hand, and I made a steel wheel with the Ace in my hand. The nightly high hand jackpot usually gets up to $25-30, with that much added weekly to the big jackpot. I think it might be neat if the big pot built up to a couple hundred over time, but would like to know your thoughts on that idea.

4) I play limit online, but I'm still not sure why. I don't have the temperament for it, and can't bring myself to take it seriously enough to be profitable. Not to mention I chase wayyy too much. Anybody else have this problem?

5) Went with Special K down to this hillbilly tournament last night. Told Suzy when I got home that we were #1 & #2. Unfortunately then I had to explain that I meant in order of elimination, not in order of finish. Good structure, horrible play on my part and horrible luck on K's. I at least have the consolation of having played like shit for my early exit. He got bad luck.

We drive to Belterra Indiana tomorrow for Suzy's 20th high school reunion. I've never met anyone from her high school days, so I don't know if I should be concerned or just assume that I'm gonna end up kicking the ass of some Kentucky hillbilly. Either way, it should be entertaining. If you're anywhere near there, you know how to find me.

4 comments:

Totally agree -- crushing Stud 8 = crushing HORSE. Extra round of betting, and people call multiple big bets drawing dead or slim. Also, often have no concept of freerolling, and will chase 1 bet with 6 more to draw at 1/2 the pot.

As for limit, I'm the same way. At medium limits most people do the same -- I find that I beat games when players are more chasey and more impatient than I am. Again, Stud 8 seems to be the place.

Here is an idea for the high-hand rollover jackpot: Tie the amount awarded to the number of cards that play from the players hand. We really don't want to split that jackpot if quads are on the board. Right?

If the player hits quads or better (QOB) with one card in his hand, then pay 50% of the rolover. You could cap the amount at say $50 or $100 as an option. The full jackpot would only be paid for QOB if both cards play and that wouldn't include a playing kicker for quads.